Save the dates and sign up here ! From Friday 30th of June to Sunday 2nd of July, the 5th CADTM Europe Summer School will be held in the cultural center of La Marlagne in Wépion near Namur (Belgium).

The system will never fall, if it is not toppled over. Our Summer School will be the place to be for those across Europe who share this goal. We’ll meet, share, discuss on current struggles and strategies we need to set up in order to put an end to the cycles of debt, capitalism and its destructive mechanisms. Creditors’ diktats in the European Union, domination through debt in the Global South, vulture funds’ misbehaviour, illegitimate private debts, women’s oppression, destruction of the environment… We do have reasons to fight!

Could there be a better place than Belgium to talk about all this? It is located in the heart of fortress Europe and near places where austerity policies are decided. Never mind if the sky is not so blue. It precisely gives us another reason to storm heaven.

But we shall not forget it’s summer time, a perfect time to seize the day! The CADTM team is preparing activist and festive parties. Among these, you’ll have access to theatre, slam and DJs performances!

The event will take place in less than one month and you can already sign up! As regulars could tell you, unfortunately there’s a limited number of seats and every time it’s full. So hurry up and get the word out! And if you want to get involved in the event preparation and the communication around it, feel free to contact us at inscriptions at cadtm.org.

‘Debt in the South, a timeline’ - ANIMATION
with César Chantraine and Rémi Vilain (CADTM Belgium)

IMF, World Bank, structural adjustment programmes, 1980 debt crisis, HIPC initiative, united front against debt – what is all this about? Where does the debt of the third world come from? You’d like to know more about the ‘debt system’? This workshop is for you!

Vulture funds buy the debts of countries in crisis at, say, 10% of their face value then claim 100% repayment. Argentina recently fell foul of this practice. How can we fight them? Why is the law voted by the Belgian parliament in 2015 contested in court by one of the most powerful vulture funds on a global scale? This workshop, with the lawyer representing the CADTM in the legal and political battle against those financial predators, will come up with some answers.

Based as they are on profit, micro-credit institutions not only exploit poverty but drive their victims into desperate predicaments. However, women stand up, resist and win victories. New alternatives are put into place.

Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus, etc. Yes, the debt crisis has reached countries of the North for some time now. This workshop sheds light on those actors (institutions as much as individuals) who are responsible for this increase in sovereign debt.

The doctrine of odious debt as formulated by the Russian jurist Alexander Sack in 1927 has been used by several political decision makers. The Committee for Truth on Greek Debt also made use of it. How should it be interpreted? How can we use it today to cancel debt, whether in the South or in the North?

Debt is the Trojan horse in an unprecedented social war against the peoples of Europe, and it is not gender-neutral. While women bear the brunt of the worst social regressions enforced by austerity, they are the true creditors of the debt.

Belfius was bought over by the Belgian state after Dexia’s second defaulting in 2011. It is now the first bank of the public sector in the country and is entirely owned by the State. The campaign entitled ‘Belfius est à nous’ (Belfius is ours) is combating the current government’s privatization project and leading the debate on how citizens can monitor the bank to optimize how it fulfils missions of general interest.

In the North as in the South, debt and public policies have been used as political weapons to steer the farming system towards extractivism and an agro-industrial production. At the cost of farmers that are crushed in the process.

‘What are the challenges to be met by the Left in the Eurozone?’
with Eric Toussaint (CADTM International), Angela Klein (SOZ/European marches against unemployment), Zoe Konstantopoulou (former Speaker of the Greek Parliament), Miguel Urban (GUE/Anticapitalistas MEP). Chair: Nathan Legrand.Interpreting FR<->ESP; FR<->ENG; ESP<->ENG

5:30 to 6:30 p.m.:

Meeting of local and national CADTM groups

6:30 to 8 p.m.:

Evening and meal annoucements

8 to 9:15 p.m. :

Theatre perfomance : Sans, by la Voix des Sans Papiers

From 10:30 p.m.:

Dj Miss Sirocco

SUNDAY 2 JULY

Western powers’ hold on Africa did not stop with colonization. New devices, particularly in the economic arena, prevent peoples from achieving emancipation, for instance the CFA franc and conversion of debt into investments. Come and find out.

‘Down with banks that throw us out of our homes’
with Eva Betavatzi, Fátima Martín. Chair: Pierre Gottiniaux.Interpreting FR<->ESP, FR<->ENG

In the US 14 million households were evicted by banks. In Spain over 300, 000 households are the victims of laws that go back to Franco’s time. In Greece banks now feel free to expel families who cannot pay their mortgage. But a new kind of movement and mobilisation is emerging to withstand such policies.